Mudkiss is now an archived site, there will be no more updates. Mudkiss operated from 2008 till 2013.

Every so often an artiste comes along who is almost impossible to pigeonhole. A cursory listen to her debut album ’Yours Truly, Cellophane Noise’ reveals music that’s both imaginative and diverse, dreamt up from the mind of someone whose nothing less than unique. Tonight Beth Jeans weaves her magic to a packed crowd at Manchester’s small and intimate Deaf Institute.

Taking no time to hit their stride, Beth Jeans and her band, the very wonderful Hooves of Destiny, hit the ground galloping with a brisk rendering of album highlight ‘Atlas’. Dressed immaculately in a red and black polka dot trouser suit, she looks for all the world like a crazed version of the Mad Hatter, although one with a platinum blonde hair and brandishing a Fender guitar. But like her music it’s all done with an unapologetic confidence.And then they’re off and running, skipping through the evenings repertoire that includes a quite a few songs that as yet remain unreleased. Still it’s a testament to Beth Jeans’ self-assuredness that these newer songs slip in seamlessly with the older material. The biggest cheer of the evening welcomes the arrival of single ‘Dodecahedron’ which unstiffens the crowd to get feet tapping and legs moving. At one point Beth Jeans introduces a primal screaming session and asks each Hoof of Destiny to let out a blood-curdling barking mad yells to help release those irritating inner demons. However the band makes a much more irresistible noise when they fuse their musical talents together to help ferry Beth Jeans’ quivering siren calls up and off into the rafters. It really is music and words that are full of weird secrets that entice and torment in equal measure.